I’m disappointed we didn’t find a first tier candidate in MN (or PA).
I guess it’s between Bills and Doc Severson who lost the sec of state race in 2010 by a small margin.
Other MN news, the district convention couldn’t decide who to endorse for Congress in district 1, will try again later.
MN redistricting was lame thanks to that stolen gubernatorial election. CD 1 has the same Obama numbers as do 7 and 8. C2 (Kline) sees +2 Obama (he lost the old, won the new). CD3 gets 1 point better. CDs 4 and 5 uselessly get slightly better.
Why not Pete Hegseth? He could be a younger Ron Johnson. http://www.peteforsenate.com/
MN redistricting was horribly disappointing for two reasons: (i) MN barely held on to its 8th congressional district at the 2010 Census and (ii) as you mentioned, the RATs stole the governorship in 2010 and prevented the GOP from having full control of the process. Had the GOP controlled the process with only seven CDs, it could have combined the Twin Cities into a single, hyper-Democrat CD (and it could use the excuse of making it “minority influence”), and then either draw 6 GOP-leaning CDs or draw 5 more comfortably GOP CDs and a Dem-leaning CD for Peterson that could be competitive after he retired. (Or, less likely but more efficient, draw a minority-influence CD in Minneapolis and other parts of the Twin Cities, draw a second heavily Dem CD combining in white, socially conservative parts of St. Paul and the Duluth area through parts of Washington County and a narrow corridor along the Wisconsin border, and then draw five safely GOP CDs.)
Are you sure that the redrawn MN-04 isn’t potentially competitive? The portions of Washington County added lean Republican, and the district didn’t give Kerry that much of a majority in 2004.